They don’t.
What is a saint?
First of all, we need to define who the saints
actually are.
Saints are people
that we know for sure are in heaven. For example, Moses and Elijah are
technically saints because we see them talking to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
(Matthew 17:3). There’s also the poor Lazarus, who lied at the door of an
extravagant rich man and “was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham”
when he died (Luke 16:19-31).
How do you become a saint?
Nowadays, there’s
a process to be officially recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. Only
the Pope can declare someone a saint, but the procedure leading up to this
declaration is long, strict, and incredibly complicated. Declaring someone a
saint is an incredibly important task because many Catholics study the lives of
saints and look up to them as role models.
It’s also
important to remember that while the Pope declares someone a saint (the
official process is called canonization), the Pope isn’t actually putting
anyone in heaven or anything like that. God alone puts people in heaven. When
the Pope canonizes someone, he is recognizing what God has already done.
To sum up the complicated
process, which can take decades or even centuries to complete, basically the
candidate’s life is scrutinized. There has to be evidence of sanctity, virtue,
obedience, etc. There also have to be certifiable miracles attributed to this
person. The idea behind that is, if God wants it known that this person is with
Him in heaven, He’ll permit something extraordinary in answer to prayers to
that candidate.
So once all that
is ready to go, the candidate is declared “Blessed” (Blessed Pope John Paul II,
for example). Then if more evidence is found, the now Blessed person goes
through the entire process again, and if he or she makes it, he or she is
officially enrolled in the canon of the Church calendar and can be made patron
of parish churches and the like.
Why do we have saints?
Well, like I said
earlier, many Catholics study the lives of saints to find inspiration and even
guidance on how to live their own lives. I mean, they made it to heaven! They
obviously did something right. Many Catholics have patron saints, i.e. a saint
that they’re named after or a saint they feel particularly close to because
they went through similar experiences. And by praying to saints, we ask them to
intercede on our behalf before God. It’s like asking a friend here on Earth to
pray for you, except this is much more powerful because a saint is with God in
heaven.
Let me make it
abundantly clear that praying to a saint is NOT the same as praying to God, and
it’s not worship, either. Praying to the saints and praying to God are two
TOTALLY different concepts, ones somewhat difficult to understand because the
English language gives them the same name.
We’re going to
look at Latin, because whoever put together Latin did a much better job of
showing these differences. In Latin, the worship owed solely to God is called latria. Humans are completely dependent
on God, and latria acknowledges that.
Dulia is the respect owed to saints,
and it means “appropriate” or “fitting and proper.” It’s not really worship;
it’s just respect.1
It is completely
okay to pray to saints. For one, as I said before, it’s like asking a friend to
pray for you. It’s even in the Bible:
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” (James 5:16)
Tell others of
your shortcomings so that they can pray for you and help you. Prayer is
powerful, and even more so when it’s the prayer of a righteous person, and a
saint most certainly qualifies as a righteous person. They made it to heaven. You don’t get more righteous than that.
Who are some cool saints?
St. Gabriel
Possenti is the patron saint of students and Catholic youth. He was born on
March 1, 1838, and was the eleventh of thirteenth children. He was known for
being charitable and pious, but he was also rather vain and prone to anger. He
narrowly escaped death three times, each time promising to enter the religious
life, but he didn’t go through with it until the third time. He died of tuberculosis
before he was ordained a priest, but apparently right before he died, he sat up
and reached for an otherwise unseen figure entering the room. His face was
completely radiant, and it’s believed he saw the Virgin Mary at the moment of
his death.
St. Monica is
another favorite of mine. To put her story simply, she prayed for the
conversion of her pagan son every day for 17 years. Seventeen years! And she
never lost faith that God would answer her prayers! After 17 years, her son
finally converted to Christianity, and guess who he turned out to be? St.
Augustine, who is one of the Doctors of the Church.
St. Lucy is my
Confirmation saint (Basically, when I was Confirmed in the Church I took on her
name, and she’s one of my patron saints.). She’s the patron saint of the blind,
writers, and many other people, and she’s also known for being a virgin martyr.
I look to her as inspiration for living purely and chastely.
In conclusion
The saints are
pretty cool folks that Catholics do not worship. They’re great sources of
inspiration and guidance, and they’ll intercede for you (if you ask nicely, of
course).
God bless!
Jill
1Information on these Latin words is brought to you by Why Do Catholics Do That? by Kevin Orlin
Johnson, Ph.D. It can be found on pages 148 and 149.
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